Five on a Friday

1. I think we have had the last sea swim of the season. It has been absurdly hot for the past few weeks, more like mid-summer than autumn. So last weekend, after lunch with the neighbours, we jumped in the car and went to Thorne Bay. By then it was late afternoon and not really summery at all, but we braved the waves because you HAVE to have that last swim. Otherwise the swim you had weeks ago was the last swim but you didn't realise it at the time, and didn't appreciate it enough. It's all about drawing a line under summer and moving on.

(You may still end up having another swim but that is a BONUS swim and not to be confused with the official last swim at all).

The official last swim ended quite abruptly when we were having what Daughter-Two calls a "watery romance" ( a group hug while jumping up and down in the sea). The Husband said "oh, there's a jellyfish" and Daughter-Two charged out of the water and onto the beach with great determination.

She's been reading "Odious Oceans" and knows more than she should about poisonous sea creatures.

2. I wished we COULD have had a bonus swim on Wednesday when we went out to Motuihe island on a school trip.

It seemed cruel to be out there on a beautiful and warm day, but banned from the beach and instead repotting seedlings and planting trees. Which was still fun, though, in a very grubby sort of way.

Here's Daughter-Two walking back to the ferry. You can see the city in the distance:

3. The highlight of the trip for most of them was the ride back to school on the top deck of a double-decker bus. Even the teacher and other parent helpers had never done it (since double deckers are a novelty here). The children had a great time trying to collect waves off everyone we passed and looking down at the top of other cars and buses

Unfortunately for someone, one of the things they spotted was a purse lying on the roof of a sporty little red car as it passed us by ..........

4. I have finally finished the album of Daughter-One aged 12 months to two years old. Just at the end I decided to experiment with taking stills from the home video of that year, since we used to take more video than photographs back then. (Now it is completely the reverse).

I simply used Gadwin screen print capture which I already have on my PC. The quality is not great but I loved the images I captured,which I used for these two pages:

(Bookworm brush and word art by Anna Aspnes - ExLibris add-on brushset)

It was also fascinating to watch the video again. I called Daughter-One in to watch a segment of her trying to splash The Husband with muddy water, with a gleam in her eye as she giggled "Get Daddy!". She ended up watching the whole video, more than a little amazed at the things she came out with at such a tender age. I ended up making another page all about the things she said as a toddler.

5. Something very sweet and summery coming to the store this weekend. Here's a sneak peek:

Comments

[Heather T.]

*grins* I appreciated your distinctions concerning last swims--and what cute layouts!!

[Monique]

Thanks for doing these five-on-a-Friday posts, Lynn. I do enjoy reading them!
I hope you'll be able to go for that bonus swim before autumn sets in; here in Holland we've had the most beautiful week of bright sunshine, telling us Spring is on its way!